Aetna: California Letters Were A Mistake, Unrelated To Cutting Doctors From Network

Aetna says letters mailed to thousands of its California customers mistakenly telling them their doctors were no longer in the insurer's network were not related to the health insurer cutting 552 doctors from its network nationwide.

The Hartford-based health insurer did not cut any medical providers in California as part of the changes to its network.

"In no way were the mistaken California letters related to that issue," said Aetna spokeswoman Susan Millerick. "The network is always evolving and this was a basic manual error."

The Sacramento Bee reported Thursday that more than 8,000 Aetna customers received letters in the mail in recent days, which mistakenly told them their health care provider is no longer covered in the insurer's network.

The error was made in Aetna's provider system, which "erroneously terminated some providers from our network."

"The terminations in the system triggered auto-generated letters to be mailed out, notifying members that their provider was no longer participating in Aetna's network," Millerick said. "We have rectified the problem and are in the process of mailing out retraction letters to members and notification letters to the providers who were terminated in error. We regret any inconvenience that this has caused."

Separately, Aetna has said it conducted an intensified evaluation of its networks for "network adequacy and cost competitiveness." As a result of the review, Aetna ended relationships with 552 medical providers in the U.S., including 4 in Connecticut, or 0.1 percent of its nationwide network.

Dr. John Tedeschi of Robbinsville, N.J., was among the doctors cut from Aetna's network. He produced a YouTube video harshly criticizing Aetna and its CEO, Mark T. Bertolini.